Christmas Memory
by Cindre
Summary: Syusuke is worried about this Christmas.


Title: Christmas Memory  
Series: Prince Of Tennis  
Pairing: None, unless you wanna take it as Fujicest.  
Author: Kurashi (ash at black-rain dot org)  
Archive:shine dot black-rain dot org (Ask if you want to archive it. )  
Disclaimer: PoT isn't mine, nyo.

The cold night air sent a chill creeping over Syusuke's body as he walked along the street, and he slowly pulled his jacket tighter around him. If he had been in his usual state of mind, this might have bothered him, but something was weighing heavily on him.

Tomorrow was Christmas. This was the only Christmas that he had ever remembered feeling unnerved about.

He stuck his hands in his pockets as a particularly persistent breeze bit into them. He wasn't far from home now.

He wandered mindlessly, absently turning the corner onto the street on which he lived. Christmas was always Yuuta's favorite holiday. But that was only because his sister and other family were there. His own presence on Christmas day was of little relevance to Yuuta, as Syusuke always stayed as far away from him as family would allow while opening presents, and the other fun Christmas activities, to try to keep himself out of the open. He doubted if Yuuta even noticed that he'd done it on purpose for years, to make him happy.

He folded his arms behind his head as he walked up to the door of his house, reluctant to go inside despite the cold. Christmas was going to be different this year. He sat down on the porch, setting his tennis bag beside him, and stared off into the distance. After a while he began to get cold, and decided that he should go inside before his sister started to worry.

He preferred to slip up to his room unnoticed. He slipped off his shoes and quietly headed up the stairs, running his fingers through his hair, shaking his head slightly a couple times. It was nice and warm in the house, he thought. Opening the door to his room and turning on the light, Syusuke walked in side and put away his tennis bag. He glanced around for a few minutes. Things were exactly the same as he'd left them, though he didn't really expect anyone to be in his room while he was out playing tennis. It was just that lately he had thought he'd set his hopes too high.

He sighed slightly and put his tennis bag away, he put his pajamas on and turned on the light on his nightstand, walking over to the light switch on the wall and flipping it, staring at it for a second. He had often gotten lost in thought since childhood, but he wasn't usually this bad. He willed himself to turn away and climb into bed. He reached underneath his bed and drew out a medium-sized, square, flat package and ran his fingers over it absentmindedly. He was doing it again. He put it back underneath his bed and turned out the light.

Yes. Christmas was going to be different this year.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Feeling a slight pang of annoyance at the birds happily chirping outside his window, Syusuke sat up and looked at his clock. Frowning slightly, he wondered how anything could be happy outside in the frigid cold at eight o'clock in the morning, and had to force himself to turn on the light rather than go back to sleep and not have to face anyone on Christmas day.

He heard the faint sounds of his family waking up, and beginning to sort the presents out. Just then, his sister knocked on the door.

"Syusuke, are you awake? We're opening presents."

"Yeah, sis. I'm coming."

He willed himself to push his covers aside and sit on the side of his bed. He slipped on the fuzzy bedroom shoes his sister had gotten him a while ago. He gazed at them fondly, finding himself thinking once again. He thought he might as well get it all over with, and he headed downstairs in his pajamas.

He stopped at the entrance to the living room, watching Yuuta's face light up as he talked with everyone. He smiled, happy to see that he was happy, and walked into the room quietly, sitting on the couch and hugging his knees up, listening.

"Woooow I wonder what this is."

He suppressed a chuckle as Yuuta began grabbing his gifts and shaking them, like a child.

"Aa! Syusuke! Merry Christmas"

"Merry Christmas, mom. Yuuta.."

"Mom, can I open my presents now"

His spirits dampened already, Syusuke walked over to the Christmas tree on the opposite side of Yuuta and began gathering his gifts into a pile. He carried them over to the end of the couch where he had been sitting previously, and patiently watched Yuuta unwrap his, not paying any attention to what was inside his own as he unwrapped them carefully.

"Whoa, no way.."

Syusuke smiled. Yuuta had just unwrapped a new pair of tennis shoes, the kind he had been wanting for quite a while. He looked down at his own presents, having unwrapped them all he had ended up with some nice things, including a new racquet and new tennis balls.

When they had all finished unwrapping their gifts and carefully putting them away, all that there was to do was lounge around on the couch and watch Christmas programs together, and wait on Christmas dinner to be served. Syusuke, however, was in his room with the package under his bed, holding it as if it might break.

He looked down at the package. Having neatly wrapped it in silver foil Christmas paper, and tied a string with a bow around it, he thought it looked rather inviting. He wondered briefly how the gift would go over before deciding it didn't matter, and he got up and walked downstairs.

He stood in the doorway watching Yuuta watch television, and walked up to him slowly.

"Yuuta."

"What do you want"

"Please, come upstairs for a moment."

Yuuta looked at him as if he was going to refuse, but instead shrugged his shoulders and followed Syusuke back to his room. Each of them kneeling on the floor facing each other, Syusuke reached under his bed and pulled out the shiny silver package, and handed it to Yuuta.

Yuuta looked it over with a disgusted look on his face, then stole a glance at Syusuke's face and his expression softened a little.

"What is this"

"Open it."

Yuuta stared for a moment and huffed, tearing into the package slowly. When he had finished unwrapping it he was looking down at it sadly, but Syusuke was smiling.

Yuuta turned over the picture of him and Syusuke hugging when they were young, and saw that Syusuke had written in black marker on the back, on the bottom left hand side.

_I love you, Yuuta._

He tried to blink away the tears that were forming in his eyes, but the impact from Syusuke leaning forward suddenly to hug him caused them to spill onto his cheeks. He wrapped his arms around his older brother and pulled him tightly to him, wiping his face off, a little ashamed.

"Yuuta.."

"Syusuke"

Syusuke released him from his hug and smiled at him. He looked back down at the picture.

"Merry Christmas, Yuuta."

He looked up into Syusuke's smiling face and smiled back.

"Merry Christmas..Syusuke."


End file.
